DS9 S02E17, S02E18, S02E19

In this installment:
(viewed Monday & Tuesday, August 4-5)

Star Trek:  Deep Space Nine, S02E17 - "Playing God"
Star Trek:  Deep Space Nine, S02E18 - "Profit And Loss"
Star Trek:  Deep Space Nine, S02E19 - "Blood Oath"

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"Playing God"

•  The small craft docking at Deep Space 9 in the opening scene of this episode might be mistaken as one of the station's Danube-class runabouts if you're not looking closely, but it's actually the much larger (although still petite, by starship standards) USS Nash.
  
  The Nash is a Sydney-class transport vessel, and will make several more visits to the station throughout the course of the series.
  
  
  
  (The Sydney-class; image courtesy of Ex Astris Scientia)
  
  Our first Sydney-class starship was the derelict USS Jenolan, used by Capt. Scott and Lt. Cmdr. La Forge to wedge open the door of a Dyson Sphere and allow the USS Enterprise-D to escape its interior in the TNG episode "Relics". 
  
  I believe the Nash is the second (and only other, if I'm not mistaken) appearance of this somewhat outdated-looking transport design.
• And apparently the Dax symbiont (and its hosts) have a reputation for being especially hard on Trill "initiates" (prospective hosts).
• I think Jadzia's "just out of the shower and wearing a towel" scene is probably the point at which they had to decide exactly how far down a Trill's spots go O_o
• Chief O'Brien and Major Kira's hunt through the station's conduits is the first of several mentions on the show of Cardassian voles, difficult-to-eradicate pests that are apparently attracted to electromagnetic fields.
• I really wish there was a brief video clip of Quark's reaction to the device O'Brien built to deter the voles.  It's priceless.
• I feel like the overweight, singing proprietor of the Klingon restaurant on the Promenade is the only role on this show I would've been qualified to play :P
• And apparently Curzon Dax was...a bit of a d*ck.
• Hey guys?  Maybe a double containment field is in order when you're dealing with unknown "subspace seaweed" and you're having problems with voles who like EM fields?
• Uh...Arjin?  I'm not sure yelling at Lt. Dax is the way to get back on her good side.
• "Even if we get it there, the wormhole's verteron nodes would probably interact with the energy patterns of the protouniverse, causing a devastating reaction."
  
  Oh yeah?
• My first thought when they're discussing the protouniverse is "Okay, we our universe expanded much farther and much more rapidly during its first few minutes of life.  No way this thing would stay that small for that long."  And then I realized that a "new universe" could have dimensions of distance and time that don't sync up with ours, or laws of physics that don't necessitate rapid expansion upon creation.
  
  Mind = blown.
• The 112th Rule of Acquisition:  "Never have sex with the boss' sister."
• Life forms in a protouniverse?  With nothing conforming to any of our laws of physics, it's a little far-fetched that they'd be able to scan this thing at all--let alone detect life.
  
  Disbelief = suspended.
• I'm with Kira...nuke it from orbit kill it with a force field.
• "It's like stepping on ants, Odo!"
  
  "I don't step on ants, Major."
  
  Constable Odo, Space Jain
• Cmdr. Sisko's moral dilemma regarding the destruction of the protouniverse is one of the few times that his experiences with the Borg at Wolf 359 informs his decision making (or at least where it's explicitly said to inform his decision making).
• "You're in love with a dabo girl?!?"
• When telling Arjin that he has to pilot the runabout through a space between verteron nodes only 17m wide, she comments that the ship is "only 15m wide".  That's still pretty big for an auxiliary craft.
• "I'm not Curzon."

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"Profit And Loss"

• The small Cardassian ship that arrives at Deep Space 9 in the beginning of this episode, damaged and in distress, is of a type we will later come to know as the Hideki class. 
  
  
  
  (Image from Star Trek:  The Magazine, courtesy of Ex Astris Scientia)
  
  It's a small patrol craft, somewhat larger than a Federation Danube-class runabout but smaller (or at least no bigger) than the later Defiant-class escort or the beetle-looking Jem'Hadar attack ships.  During the Dominion War, the Hideki class were seen operating in squadrons--similar to Starfleet attack fighters, the aforementioned Jem'Hadar ships and the much larger Klingon Bird-of-Prey.
• "I heard an interesting rumor today."
  
  "Only one?  I started at least twelve."
  
  I adore the banter between Odo and Quark.  It's easily one of the highlights of the show's earlier seasons.
• Natima Lang, the Cardassian teacher (and dissident, we later learn) and Quark's long lost ex, is played by Mary Crosby.  She's the aunt of TNG actress Denise Crosby.
• This is the second time we see the Samarian Sunset, a cocktail that changes colors.  We saw one previously in the TNG episode "Conundrum".
  
  
  
• That was no meteor swarm, those were Cardassian disruptors!
• The scene between Garak and Quark is a nice bit of thinly-veiled back-and-forth between two exceptionally sketchy characters.
• This is one of several episodes where Garak appears to have at least some loyalty left to the Cardassian Central Command, despite his status as an outcast and an enemy of Gul Dukat.
  
  (Addendum:  They later indicate that Garak is trying to buy his way back into favor with the Cardassian government, so that he can end is exile and go home again.)
• Gul Toran:  Yet another Cardassian officer we'll never see again :P
  
  (Although in this case, it's because he gets gaffled by Garak.)
• "Well, some people should never be promoted..."
• "I'm going to see to it that every Ferengi on the station shops at your store."
  
  "Ah.  That alone makes it worth while."
• "You have to tell me:  Why'd you do it?  Shoot Toran?"
  
  "Why did you let Professor Lang go?"
  
  "Because I love her."
  
  "And I love Cardassia, which is why I had to do what I did."

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"Blood Oath"

• I honestly thought this episode came later in the series.  I was so excited to see this in the line-up that I stretched my usual two-episode viewing session to three episodes (even if it meant being up a little later than I should be on a work night).
• Quark's troublesome Klingon guest is in the holosuite re-enacting the Battle of Klach D'Kel Brakt, an important victory by the Klingon Empire over the Romulan Star Empire in the 23rd Century.
  
  "Klah D'Kel Brakt" is the Klingon designation for the large, disruptive gaseous nebula known to the Federation as the "Briar Patch", which will be featured in Star Trek:  Insurrection and the ENT episode "The Augments".
• "How did you get in here?"
  
  "I am Koloth."
  
  "That doesn't answer my question."
  
  "Yes it does."
• The three Klingons who visit the station in order to meet up with Dax and go on a good ol' fashioned revenge killing spree are all familiar names from TOS (played by their original actors):
  
• Kor ("Errand Of Mercy")
• Koloth ("The Trouble With Tribbles")
• Kang ("Day Of The Dove")
  

All three legendary warriors were, apparently, affected by the Augment Virus in the 23rd Century.
• "This time, we will reach the Albino.  And I will cut his heart out and eat it, while he watches me with his dying breath."
  
  Kang is pretty hardcore.  He reminds me of this guy.
  
  
  
• "Kira, how many people did you kill?"
  
  That's not really an appropriate topic for workplace conversation, Lieutenant.
• "So yeah, here's the thing:  You're totally a Starfleet officer.  We can't let you run off with a bunch of crazy old Klingons and assassinate someone."
• Hey, at least Kang has is own Bird-of-Prey.  That's gotta count for something, right?
• Everybody loves a good tetryon bombardment.
• "Excuse me, could you tell me where the tennis courts are?  I seem to be lost."
• "Look upon your executioners, killer of children!"That's a great album, man.
  
  
  
  (It's a great album, but I prefer their earlier work...you know, before they went commercial.)
• I forgot that poor Kor is the only one to survive this fight :(
  
  (Aside from Dax, of course.)
• "I was right, Dax.  It is a good day to die."
  
  "It's never a good day to lose a friend."